In general, apparatuses for treating excreta which can automatically treat excreta have been developed for patients who cannot treat excreta by themselves due to medical operations in hospitals or old people who have difficulty in movement.
Such apparatuses for treating excreta include a port that is formed in a diaper shape to receive excreta of a patient and retain the patient's hip and a control device unit that controls storage of excreta that is vacuum-suctioned from the port or supply of wash water for washing the patient's hip to the port.
The control device unit includes an excreta storage unit that is connected with the port and stores the excreta at the port, an excreta suctioning unit that is connected to the excreta storage unit to vacuum-suction the excreta in the port; and a wash water supply unit that supplies wash water to wash the excreta and a bidet.
As an example of the apparatus for treating excreta, an “automatic excreta treating apparatus” has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-58692.
The automatic excreta treating apparatus includes a port that is made of synthetic resin and can come in close contact to the pelvic region of a human body and a control device unit that is connected to the port. The port has a treating portion formed at the center portion on the inner surface to collect excreta, a washing nozzle opened to be connected to the treating portion, an excreta suctioning port formed on the bottom of the treating portion, a flat portion formed around the treating portion and hermetically coming in direct contact with a human body, and a belt seating portion formed outside the portions corresponding to both legs of the port. The control device unit is provided with a washing pipe connected to the washing nozzle, a suction pipe connected to an excreta suction port, an excreta tank connected with the suction pipe, a wash water tank connected to the washing pipe, and a pump performing the suction and transporting the wash water.
In the automatic excreta treatment apparatus of the related art, both the air channel for washing the excreta and the air channel for drying pass through the excreta tank. That is, a small pump is operated to dry the inside of the port after the excreta is suctioned into the excreta tank, in which the air at the upper portion in the excreta tank is sprayed through the washing nozzle by the small pump. According to this structure, since the air at the upper portion in the excreta tank has been contaminated, when the air is sprayed into the port, there is a problem in that it is difficult to keep cleanliness for the patient and the room where there is a patient becomes contaminated.
Further, only the wash water is sprayed through the washing nozzle for washing the excreta, such that there is a problem in that the excreta in the treating portion is not completely removed.
Meanwhile, a plurality of tubes are connected between the port and the control device unit to suction/supply the air and wash water.
The excreta in the port is suctioned into the excreta storage unit of the control device unit through any one of the tubes. Further, the wash water supplied from the wash water supply unit of the control device unit washes the excreta or washes the patient's hip while being supplied into the port through any one or more of the tubes.
For this operation, the tubes are connected to the inside of the main body, that is the control device unit, but there is a problem in that the joints are structurally complicated and the number of joints correspondingly increases, such that the excreta leaks.
Further, since the connection structure is complicated, it is difficult to separate the excreta storage unit for washing.
In addition, in the automatic excreta treatment apparatus of the related art, the position of the washing nozzle for washing the patient's hip is fixed. However, the positions of the anuses of people or the pelvic region of women when they are lying may be a little different. Therefore, according to the automatic excreta treatment apparatus of the related art, there is a problem in that it is difficult to accurately spray the wash water to a desired position to wash, even though the wash water is sprayed to wash the anus or the pelvic region of a woman.